Our Inner Child

I met a man who was rich enough to buy what ever he wanted. He showed me the $60,000 boatthat he bought a few years back and told me that he didn't have time to use it, that he had neverbeen out in his boat. He showed me his beautiful home and confessed that he didn't spend muchtime there with his wife and children. He made a lot of money, but his job took up most of his time. He belonged to a church, but most Sundays he was working.

It was evident that his wife and children loved him, and they wanted to spend time with them. He felt that that was impossible because he needed his job to give them a very nice home and lots of expensive stuff that they enjoyed. The truth is that he was trapped in the all American stress for success track. Everyone saw him as a winner and yet he had lost all of the important things in life.

I met a woman that spent several years with a company moving from one job to the next. Each new position demanded more of her time. Just after she got the job she had dreamed of, she had a baby. She decided that it was important to spend time with her husband and her child.
She performed well on her job, but her supervisor wasn't satisfied. He made it clear to her that her job required more than forty hours a week. She would have to work some nights and weekends to keep up with her clients and all of her paper work. Her reply was "I have a family and I need to spend time with them." She stood firm on her position and a few months later she lost her job.

I suppose that my ink drawing looks strange to you. Two men are wearing pajamas, "jamies," with bunnies and teddy bears. Their pajamas represent their inner child, a part of them that is nurtured by having fun and playing. It may sound cliche, but families that play together stay together. It's difficult for each of us to take care of our inner child because with live in a stress for success society.

There are many wonderful benefits from taking care of our inner child. We will be healthy and we will live longer. Stress is a key ingredient in most illnesses. It breaks down our immune systems and we feel tired and sick. Play actually frees our minds to solve problems and it releases our creative energy. Play not only reduces our stress it releases endorphins and we arel happy. Play helps to prevent depression. Often when we play, we laugh and giggle together. Norman Mailer proved that laughter can cure illness,

He was far away from home and he was very sick. The doctors kept him in the hospital and constantly interrupted him with tests, but they didn't have any success. He had them stop the tests and treatments and watched many funny movies. His inner child emerged and released him from his illness. Soon, he left the hospital healthy and happy.

I would like to reveal a well kept secret, "God likes to laugh and have fun." I would be barred from most churches if I told them that they were too serious and solemn. I am not denying that we need to deal with our sins, but at the end of the week our worship service should give us some healing and hope. Instead, we may hear sermons which make us feel awful.

I gave a sermon at a church and used a Power Point presentation to celebrate God's love and God's desire for us to have wonderful peace and joy. The many scriptures came with beautiful pictures. I watched people weep with joy and relief. God touched the inner child that he created in each of them.

A man in that church told me that I presented a sermon for fourth graders and the people needed more. I should have hugged him and said, "WOW!!!!" It took me a long time to see that what he intended to be a scolding was really an affirmation of my success. Jesus said, "Unless you become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of God." He also said, "Let the children come to me!" Have we forgotten that we are the children of God?

If we take playing and having fun seriously, some one will be sure to say, "Grow up!" Our answer is simple. We know how to take responsibility and we have an excellent work ethic, but God also wants us to have fun and laugh. I take that seriously because my life depends on that.
David wrote psalms, but he also knew how to dance. He danced when his son Absalom died and his world came crashing down on him. I believe that God danced with him in his time of grief. When we are very sad we lose the rhythm of life and we need to find it again. "Sorrow lasts for the night, but joy comes in the morning."

Bear